A problem associated with the counting of live chickens is to be able to separate them sufficiently to enable counting to be effected.
Another problem is that articles or products such as livestock, fruit and the like are susceptible to injury or damage when handled mechanically.
Apparatus for counting both animate and inanimate articles is generally known and one example for counting bottle tops is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,493,464 of Nelson assigned to Production Instrument Company which is mainly concerned with control apparatus and a switch in particular. In this patent there is a conveyor belt and side walls forming a channel for confining the articles and at the discharge end the products follow a convergent rather than a divergent path by means of a horizontally rotating drive wheel of adjustable speed and rim spacing for varying the width of a restricted passageway in the channel forming a gate in conjunction with a resilient control switch actuating spring plate depressed by the passage of each bottle cap passing over it to contact an adjustable contact switch actuating pin to thereby record an electrical impulse at a counter. Bottle caps discharged from the restricted passage are diverted alternatively into two fixed branch chutes feeding directly into containers. U.S. Pat. No. 3,110,388 of Elliott, Weaver and Scholl discloses an automatic device for catching live poultry and conveying same to a counter while using different belt speeds to separate fowl which are dropped through a hopper onto counting means in the form of an upper first pair of downwardly inclined, retractable, fall-checking flaps and then onto a lower pair of fall-retarding flaps which alternately deflect counted fowl onto one of a pair of contra-rotating drums with fingers to deflect fowl towards one of a pair of fixed outwardly and downwardly-inclined, discharge chutes. The flaps do not form collection chambers. German patent No. 487,641 discloses a pair of outwardly curved, fixed diversion chutes below the discharge end of a primary conveyor and a movable gate swings between the conveyors to divert articles to either a left-hand or a right-hand conveyor arranged at right angles to and below the primary conveyor.